Traditional critical illness insurance used to cover 30 medical conditions. Now there are 37 of them and more than half have new standardized definitions.

Since 2003, Life Insurance Association of Singapore (LIA) has standardized critical illness definitions to provide greater transparency for customers to compare the different critical illness insurance plans. 11 years later, with all the medical advancement, it is time for the definitions of critical illness to be updated.

#1  What are the common critical illnesses in Singapore?

According to research findings from Gen Re’s “2012 Dread Disease Survey”, over 90 per cent of all severe stage claims received by life insurers are for five critical illnesses (CI) namely:

• Major Cancers
• Heart Attack of Specified Severity
• Coronary Artery By-pass Surgery
• Stroke
• Kidney Failure

Today, Singapore has a “graying” population with 300,000 people aged 65 or above, and that will triple by 2030. The incidence of chronic diseases among both the young and old is also increasing. Healthcare bills here has been rising, this will escalate the nation’s overall healthcare expenditure by an additional 11% each year until 2018, according to an article in The Business Times on 8 February 2013.

#2 Critical Illness Definition Standardization

Critical illness insurance pays out a lump sum in the event that the life insured is diagnosed to be suffering from one of the critical illnesses (CI) or has undergone a surgical procedure covered by the policy.

Each CI condition or surgery covered by the policy is precisely defined in the policy contract and benefits will be paid only if the policyholder suffers from a condition that meets the standard definition. So you can imagine it would be quite chaotic if one insurer pays a claim while another rejects the same condition due to differences in definition.

In 2003, the insurance industry standardized definitions of 30 critical illnesses. It was a good move because Policyholders were given greater assurance in claims.

Fast forward 11 years now, with advances in clinical practices, medical science and technology, a lot of things have changed. I am glad that LIA has taken the initiative to update the critical illness definitions.

#3 New Critical Illness Benefit Guidelines

With effect from 1 August 2014, there are three changes.

a) The previous maximum limit of 30 medical conditions per CI plan is abolished. An insurer will now have the flexibility to choose to cover any amount of medical conditions per CI plan from the list of 37 medical conditions.

b) Definitions of the medical conditions are standardized across the industry to make them consistent. Out of the 37 medical conditions in the LIA list, 16 are revised.

c) Insurers MUST adopt a 90-day waiting period for the severe stage of the following 5 CIs:

1. Major Cancers
2. Coronary Artery By-Pass Surgery
3. Heart Attack of Specified Severity
4. Angioplasty and Other Invasive Treatments for Coronary Artery
5. Other Serious Coronary Artery Disease

Here is the list of the new 37 medical conditions

1. Major Cancers
2. Heart Attack of Specified Severity
3. Stroke
4. Coronary Artery By-pass Surgery
5. Kidney Failure
6. Aplastic Anaemia
7. End Stage Lung Disease
8. End Stage Liver Failure
9. Coma
10. Deafness (Loss of Hearing)
11. Heart Valve Surgery
12. Loss of Speech
13. Major Burns
14. Major Organ / Bone Marrow Transplantation
15. Multiple Sclerosis
16. Muscular Dystrophy
17. Parkinson’s Disease
18. Surgery to Aorta
19. Alzheimer’s Disease / Severe Dementia
20. Fulminant Hepatitis
21. Motor Neurone Disease
22. Primary Pulmonary Hypertension
23. HIV Due to Blood Transfusion and Occupationally Acquired HIV
24. Benign Brain Tumour
25. Viral Encephalitis
26. Bacterial Meningitis
27. Angioplasty & Other Invasive Treatment For Coronary Artery
28. Blindness (Loss of Sight)
29. Major Head Trauma
30. Paralysis (Loss of Use of Limbs)
31. Terminal Illness
32. Progressive Scleroderma
33. Apallic Syndrome
34. Systemic Lupus Erythematosus with Lupus Nephritis
35. Other Serious Coronary Artery Disease
36. Poliomyelitis
37. Loss of Independent Existence

If you are considering to buy critical illness insurance, I have made it easy for you.

Click here to download the new critical illness definition

If you want to check out the indicative premium, you can use the FREE compareFIRST service here.